update · July 22, 2026
War Thunder Update 2.57.1.38 Overhauls Anti-Air Logic and Payload Capacities
War Thunder's latest update adjusts anti-air logic, increases munition payload limits for select F/A-18 variants, and shifts ticket costs and reward payouts across matches. The patch also introduces the SM-2MR SAM to AI ships and brings new nuke-carrying aircraft to late-era battles.
Update 2.57.1.38 for War Thunder brings sweeping mechanical adjustments to anti-air threat evaluation, payload capacities on modern jets, and ticket penalties for vehicle losses. Ground and naval battles receive specific logic configurations designed to alter how defense systems react to incoming munitions and high-threat targets.
Aircraft Payloads and Targeting Fixes
British F/A-18E and F/A-18F aircraft can now carry a maximum of 10 AGM-154A1 JSOW bombs simultaneously, up from previous limits. Swedish F/A-18C Late and F/A-18C MLU 2, alongside the British AF/A-18A Late, top out at 8 AGM-154A1 bombs. Bug fixes for the F-16A ADF, F-16A MLU, F-16D Barak II, and F-2A resolve an issue where bombs were incorrectly counted as being inside the bomb bay. Ballistic computer functionality has also been restored for F-16A ADF and F-16A MLU models.
Anti-Air and Radar Adjustments
Anti-air defense logic receives a series of foundational overhauls. Convoy SAMs now slow down while firing and guiding missiles. Short-range SAMs activate search radars earlier when players enter spotting distance or when defending against incoming munitions. Gunned SPAAs now prioritize targets based on direct threats rather than picking the closest unit. Additionally, long-range SAMs ignore targets flying away at lower priority to focus on immediate dangers, and minimum attack altitudes for long-range systems past 20 km have been raised from 100 meters to 300 meters.
Ticket Costs and Reward Rebalancing
Ticket loss penalties for vehicle destruction have been heavily adjusted. Losing an aircraft carrier now costs 500 tickets instead of 100, while destroyers cost 60. SAM site search radars jump to a cost of 100 tickets, and launchers cost 30. Airfield, convoy, and factory AA defenses cost 20 tickets. Conversely, the ticket penalty for losing a player aircraft drops from 30 to 20. Total team ticket pools increase from 9,000 to 10,000, with escalation stage thresholds bumped to 3,000 and 7,000 tickets. Silver Lion payouts for destroying enemy aircraft drop by 8%, while ground unit destruction rewards are doubled.
Naval and Event Updates
Naval vessel artificial intelligence now utilizes the new SM-2MR (RIM-66C) SAM, and ship anti-air logic has been tuned to properly engage low-flying targets and anti-ship missiles. Late-era battles now include new nuke-carrying aircraft, featuring the F-16A ADF, F-16A MLU, F-16D Barak II, F-2A, and MiG-29SMT (9-19). Nation presets are restricted to USSR versus all and USSR plus China versus all.
Why this patch matters
Update 2.57.1.38 targets specific combat frustrations by making anti-air behavior smarter and rebalancing the economic cost of losing major assets on the battlefield.